Tho' he was a very sick man, it's hard to believe the legendary producer, songwriter, and cartoon king of rock and roll sleaze, Kim Fowley, died yesterday. Most folks know Fowley for getting the Runaways together and sparking the careers of Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, and Lita Ford. However, before he got those young ladies together, he already had a jam-packed résumé.

Fowley began as a label lackey in the late '50s, but soon was writing and producing; he co-produced the Hollywood Argyles' number one hit, “Alley Oop,” Paul Revere & the Raiders' "Like, Long Hair," wrote B. Bumble and the Stingers’ “Nut Rocker,” and the Murmaids’ “Popsicles and Icicles.” Then, in 1963, he moved to London. While there he wrote the flipside of Cat Stevens’s first single, worked with Them/Belfast Gypsies, Soft Machine, and the pre-Slade group, the N'Betweens. When he returned to LA he installed himself as a constant on the Sunset Strip, made some solo records, guested on the Mothers of Invention’s album, Freak Out!, produced Gene Vincent, the Seeds, co-wrote songs for the Byrds and Warren Zevon’s Wanted Dead or Alive album. Oh, he also MCed John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band performance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. In the '70s he worked with Blue Cheer, Helen Reddy, Kiss, Alice Cooper, the Modern Lovers, and THEN, in 1975, he introduced Joan Jett to Sandy West, sorted the rest of the band, and called them the Runaways.

Yesterday on Twitter, Andy Zax, an LA music producer tweeted perfectly, "Kim Fowley was an anti-hero, a super-villain, a genius and the greatest talent scout/opportunist in the history of the music business." Yeah, he was all those things, and for all the awesome music he made, a LOT of folks hated Fowley. His persona could be jarring, he was a cynical prick, AND he liked to run his mouth, but being KIM FOWLEY was a choice he owned.

I always reckoned Fowley was so brash because when he started out, in 1960, he knew needed to be different than the music-biz fat cats in order to attract bands/groups with the NEW teen SOUNDS. And once he got his (shit)ball rolling, he spent the rest of his life on the make for new sounds, anything exciting or edgy. Uh, I don't think he did any of this for the money; he did it because he loved making music and inventing something, a spectacle maybe. In fact he's quoted in a 2012 San Diego Reader interview saying, "It's necessary for a band to have charisma, and it's necessary for a band to have a Kim Fowley in there someplace. The behind-the-scenes people are as much a part of rock 'n' roll as the guys onstage.... Kim Fowley is a necessary evil." He was indeed one of a kind and very, very necessary.